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Re: Time for some in house changes?

If the fundamental issue is communication amongst the OL then shuffling the players around isn't likely to improve things quickly. But if there's any thought of trying that now's the time--if they can tiptoe past the Browns they can probably beat the Raiders & arrive in Pittsburgh with 4 weeks of practice & 2 games to settle in.

I get the feeling that part of the problem on the road is that the OL is a beat slower off the snap. (I wonder how much of Birk's routine is to ensure that everyone on the line knows when the snap is coming--he seems to dip his head & hike up his butt & then snap the ball on the same count every down. The problem of course is that any defense that's watched the film knows when the snap is coming as well--advantage, D. Maybe they need to put in some silent counts or just some variations to keep the opposing D honest?)

The problem with keeping a TE in to block is that neither of them is very good at it. Maybe they need to go the opposite route & spread the field...but then Joe's gotta find the hot read on a 3-step drop.

Speaking of 3-step drops, I gather that the Texans had a complete read on when he'd be throwing from one, since they seemed to know exactly when to get their hands up.

I myself am more concerned about the D, particularly the line. I was scratching my head as to why it looked pretty good on the first 3 series & then went into the tank, & it occurred to me that it took that long for Houston to test Suggs & then implement contingency plans. IIRC they started by going right at him, & he held up well. Then when that didn't work, they ran plays away from him. Sizzle in his first game back looked (understandably) a step slow in pursuit, particularly when Schaub was rolling away from him, & that set the pass rush back to ground zero. Hindsight being 20-20, maybe they should have played man coverage at that point--couldn't've been much worse, could it?--but with Suggs neutralized that probably looked like a recipe for disaster.

We are starting to understand how important Redding was to last year's defense--& suspect how much the loss of McBean, who was signed to take his place, late in the preseason has hurt.

IMO if Pees has anything up his sleeve (different schemes or personnel groupings) now is the time to put them in in hopes of making it to 7-2 before they get to Pittsburgh; if they don't, the chances of squeezing out a playoff spot go way down--they'll probably have to sweep the Stealers, win once between DC, Denver & the Giants, & it still might come down to Week 17 in Cincy.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by camdenyard

That is to me, just being unprepared on the coaching side. They knew what the Texans brought, and they essentially ignored it. And the batted balls...damn, is there anyone that covers the NFL not aware that they do this more than any team? They didn't even try to counter that. No adjustments at all. It's talent, and it is also an excellent example of the coaching staff laying a deuce on the 50 yard line.

We don't have the flexibility to run 2 TEs in patterns against teams that can rush the passer off the edge. We need to run plays that neutralize the rush. Screens, draws, rollouts...and QUICK DEVELOPING PASS PATTERNS. This isn't fucking rocket science. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses!

Your playing against a team who gets to the QB and have an Oline that is more than willing to cooperate in that venture.

Why the fuck are we running ridiculous slow developing patterns from the 1980's Dan Fouts playbook????? When we see our offense run a slant, a screen or any other quick pattern around here we all jump up and down like an Irishman who just saw his first Leprechaun

“A linebacker's job is to knock out running backs, to knock out receivers, to chase the football,”
-Ray Lewis

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by Ravenous1

Your playing against a team who gets to the QB and have an Oline that is more than willing to cooperate in that venture.

Why the fuck are we running ridiculous slow developing patterns from the 1980's Dan Fouts playbook????? When we see our offense run a slant, a screen or any other quick pattern around here we all jump up and down like an Irishman who just saw his first Leprechaun

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by Ravenous1

Why the fuck are we running ridiculous slow developing patterns from the 1980's Dan Fouts playbook????? When we see our offense run a slant, a screen or any other quick pattern around here we all jump up and down like an Irishman who just saw his first Leprechaun

That's true. I wonder how much of that is Cameron this year and how much it is Flacco changing the play. Flacco has a lot of confidence in his ability. He wants the ball in his hand, especially at crunch time. He also seems to like slinging it deep. I don't think Cameron's offense has a lot of short, quick routes- the Coryell has never been known for that- but I do wonder how much of the plays we're seeing on the field are on Cameron and how much are on Flacco.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by bacchys

That's true. I wonder how much of that is Cameron this year and how much it is Flacco changing the play. Flacco has a lot of confidence in his ability. He wants the ball in his hand, especially at crunch time. He also seems to like slinging it deep. I don't think Cameron's offense has a lot of short, quick routes- the Coryell has never been known for that- but I do wonder how much of the plays we're seeing on the field are on Cameron and how much are on Flacco.

I tend to think that since we saw very little of that prior to Joe having more control over the offense, its just not a big component of a Cam Cameron offense.

Joe may be calling some of the plays at the line but I think people forget that he is still choosing from a bag of plays that are Cams plays. If those plays are anything like what we have seen Cam run the past 3 yrs, there are very few if any slants, screens or other quick strike type plays. Its not as if Joe is designing his own plays in the huddle lol, he is still running from a selection of Cams plays

“A linebacker's job is to knock out running backs, to knock out receivers, to chase the football,”
-Ray Lewis

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by BigPlayReceiver

lol...ok. But I dont see how you land there based upon; NE's (total) defensive ranking from 2006-2009 was 6th, 4th, 10th and 11th.

He also had an offense that was able to control the game and put his D in a position to tee off frequently with big leads. Not something that is happening here. I think Pees has not shown a lot in terms of adjustments etc but that said he has had a bad deck of cards dealt to him. Even Pagano would struggle if you took JJ, Suggs, Lewis, Webb, Redding etc away from him. Not going to be as harsh on Pees as say Cam....

“A linebacker's job is to knock out running backs, to knock out receivers, to chase the football,”
-Ray Lewis

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Speaking of rocket science, that defensive blitz resulting in a safety is one the Ravens, and especially Cam and Flacco, should be intimately familiar with. It is a play directly out of the Steeler's playbook, and one which Reed has runbefore. Polamalu did exactly the same thing to Joe and the Ravens resulting in a huge loss when no one picked him up and/or Joe failed to see him and did not audible out of the original play. Cam says they will work on correcting that miscue. But damn, when will they ever learn? When will Flacco learn to read defenses and to audible accordingly?

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by rharris1986

Harbaughs a good head coach. The others need to go - beginning with Cam. Cam is an albatross hanging around the neck of the offense.

This team will not make the playoffs - in which case Cam will be gone - just like he should have last January. If you remember the news reports he expressed some surprised at not being replaced. When you think that about yourself you can only conclude that the people who think you're wrong about yourself are in fact delusional - and maybe don't really know as much as they would have you believe.

Is he? He doesn't hold his coordinators responsible for anything. He doesn't even know what's going on in their meetings. If i were the head coach, and something was going horribly wrong, I'd get involved before the ship sank.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by DrUnk

Harbs needs to grow a set, and get in his coaches faces when they are calling a bad game.

Just curious, but how can you even claim to know what goes on behind closed doors?

We all know the Ravens organization from top to bottom is one of the most tight lipped orgs that exist in pro sports...why would Harbs ever get in Cam's face or Dean's face on the sidelines, berate them publicly, and expect to still have a job?

Everyone can rant and rave all they want about how poor Harbs is at handling his coordinators, but not one single person on this forum knows what goes on in the locker room, in the meeting room, and in their offices.

Harbs knows what the problems are. A lot of these issues can't be fixed over night and some of them can't and won't be fixed/addressed until next off-season.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by steelerhater

Is he? He doesn't hold his coordinators responsible for anything.He doesn't even know what's going on in their meetings. If i were the head coach, and something was going horribly wrong, I'd get involved before the ship sank.

Prove it.

What is said to the press during post-game interviews is VERY different than what happens Mon-Fri behind closed doors.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by Ravenous1

He also had an offense that was able to control the game and put his D in a position to tee off frequently with big leads. Not something that is happening here. I think Pees has not shown a lot in terms of adjustments etc but that said he has had a bad deck of cards dealt to him. Even Pagano would struggle if you took JJ, Suggs, Lewis, Webb, Redding etc away from him. Not going to be as harsh on Pees as say Cam....

I don't disagree. Pees is struggling. No denying that at all.
My original counter earlier is about speculation (poor specualtion IMO) of why Pees left NE.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Geez. They change the site's URL and now it's favorable to bash Cam. Most of my criticisms of Cam have been laid out here.

I will say that the thing that bothers me the most is that as soon as the Ravens get down a score, Cam acts like they're down 3 scores and abandons the run. It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the Ravens usually then skid towards a loss.

That's a loser mentality. Playing not to lose is one of the things that helped get the Billick regime run out of town and it's happened again.

On top of that, he still wants to use these slow developing plays. At least he'll do a screen. And a slant. One or two per game, but that's it. Once he's used it, it's gone because, well, the other team might know he's running it and make his offense less baffling to the defense. Or some crap.

Cam and his system are dinosaurs. It's time to put them in a museum. And it's fine. Sometimes you're in the game so long that it changes on you and you don't know it did and you don't know how to react, so you keep doing what you do because it's all you know how to do. It works sometimes, but the rest of the time, the results can be bad. He needs to get with the times or get out.

He ought watch some Aaron Rodgers tapes. Not because Joe is supposed to be Rodgers, but they do different things to put Rodgers in the position to make a play.

Anyway, it's now favorable to bash Cam.

And now, I see folks are not thrilled with Pees now too. I expressed misgivings before the season started but got shouted down. Guess it's favorable here to feel that way now, too.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by Firststater

Speaking of rocket science, that defensive blitz resulting in a safety is one the Ravens, and especially Cam and Flacco, should be intimately familiar with. It is a play directly out of the Steeler's playbook, and one which Reed has runbefore. Polamalu did exactly the same thing to Joe and the Ravens resulting in a huge loss when no one picked him up and/or Joe failed to see him and did not audible out of the original play. Cam says they will work on correcting that miscue. But damn, when will they ever learn? When will Flacco learn to read defenses and to audible accordingly?

Mmm, I think it may have been something less (& more) than a simple overload blitz. Barwin is quoted in King's MMQB this week as saying either he or Brooks Reid (the other OLB) was spying Rice on 3rd downs especially. Someone said that on the play that went for a safety, it didn't look like Barwin was blitzing. It may be that he wasn't, so long as Rice was to that side, but when #27 shifted to the other side because he saw someone coming from there, Rice became Reid's responsibility & Barwin was free to blitz. In fact that may have been specifically designed into the defensive call: the OLB nearest Rice at the snap would spy him while the other one blitzed.

Re: Time for some in house changes?

Originally Posted by Dirt1

Ray Rice had a great year last year, and the Ravens made it to within one dropped pass from making it to the Super Bowl. If they would have left the OL alone, and just replaced Grubbs with KO, they would be in much better shape right now. I would have loved to have seen them keep Grubbs, but if that wasn't possible due to the salary cap, then they actually found a gem in KO to replace him with for THIS season. Nothing is stopping them from moving Oher to LT and KO to RT next year after they have a chance to get a better LG and C in the draft or through FA.

I think that is what everyone expected.

I know you have your doubts, but I still 100% believe that was the intention before McKinnie's off-season issues.